Cynthia Nixon, Democratic challenger for governor, left, speaks with Sloan Brockmann of Lynbrook, L.I. who was dressed in plastic bags for the Walk the Talk on Climate! Day of Action before they marched on the State Capitol building on Monday, April 23, 2018, in Albany, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union) less

Cynthia Nixon, Democratic challenger for governor, left, speaks with Sloan Brockmann of Lynbrook, L.I. who was dressed in plastic bags for the Walk the Talk on Climate! Day of Action before they marched on the ... more

Green Party gubernatorial candidate, Howie Hawkins participates in a Walk the Talk on Climate! Day of Action rally as they prepare to march on the State Capitol building on Monday April 23, 2018 in Albany, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union) less

Green Party gubernatorial candidate, Howie Hawkins participates in a Walk the Talk on Climate! Day of Action rally as they prepare to march on the State Capitol building on Monday April 23, 2018 in Albany, N.Y. ... more

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 23: A plastic bag blows down the street on Court Street, April 23, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo introduced on Monday a bill that proposes to ban single-use carryout plastic bags statewide. If passed, the new law would go in effect in January of 2019. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) less

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 23: A plastic bag blows down the street on Court Street, April 23, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo introduced on Monday a bill that proposes to ... more

Photo: Drew Angerer

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NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 23: A shopper leaves a Rite Aid store carrying a plastic shopping bag, April 23, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo introduced on Monday a bill that proposes to ban single-use carryout plastic bags statewide. If passed, the new law would go in effect in January of 2019. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) less

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 23: A shopper leaves a Rite Aid store carrying a plastic shopping bag, April 23, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo introduced on Monday a bill ... more

A large crowd gathered for the Walk the Talk on Climate! Day of Action rally as they prepare to march on the State Capitol building on Monday, April 23, 2018, in Albany, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

A large crowd gathered for the Walk the Talk on Climate! Day of Action rally as they prepare to march on the State Capitol building on Monday, April 23, 2018, in Albany, N.Y. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

The person freaking out, of course, is Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has responded to Nixon's entry into the governor's race with one progressive announcement after another. The man is fretting.

Last week, for example, Cuomo said he may pardon paroled felons so they can vote in New York elections, a move that civil rights activists hailed. On Monday, he proposed a bill that would ban single-use plastic bags statewide.

In what can only be considered a massive coincidence, wink wink, the announcement came as Nixon was marching with environmentalists through Albany and denouncing Cuomo's lack of action on climate change. If Nixon was holding thunder, Cuomo mugged her and ran off with it.

Nixon is pushing Cuomo to the left, and hard. If you're a Nixon-style progressive, that's a victory — even if the challenger of "Sex and the City" fame ultimately fails to topple our gubernatorial Mr. Big in the Democratic primary.

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In progressive circles, they are one of the great evils of civilization, right up there with cigarettes, religion and "Duck Dynasty."

The hatred for plastic bags, at least, isn't irrational. Their impact is undeniable and unfortunate. They harm wildlife. They clog storm drains. They get caught in trees.

"The blight of plastic bags takes a devastating toll on our streets, our water and our natural resources," Cuomo said Monday in his statement announcing the legislation.

If you want to feel grim about humanity's future on the planet, take a walk along Albany's riverfront bike trail and eye the multitude of plastic bags. On a windy day, there might be hundreds pressed up along the chain-link fence separating the path from Interstate 787.

Cuomo's proposal would take effect next year and apply to point-of-sale plastic bags, with a few exceptions, including those thin plastic bags you use at the supermarket for fruits and veggies.

Of course, New York doesn't do anything that California hasn't done first, and so it is with plastic bags. The biggest of the blue states largely banned them at the start of 2017 and does not seem to have fallen into the ocean as a result.

Cuomo's plan differs in an important way. While California imposes a 10-cent fee on paper bags, New York's bill does not.

That means the legislation, if enacted, would probably just lead many stores and their customers to scrap single-use plastic bags to go back to the single-use paper bags of yore, which is not a clear-cut (pun intended!) environmental victory.

Yes, paper bags are biodegradable. But studies have found that they actually have a bigger carbon footprint than their plastic counterparts, largely because more energy is needed to produce and transport them.

On Monday, I talked to Mona Golub, the Price Chopper spokeswoman, who has become something of an expert on plastic bag bans, as the supermarket chain operates in several municipalities that have enacted them. Golub said the company is generally supportive of measures that reduce the amount of garbage and encourage customers to switch to reusable bags. She's skeptical Cuomo's bill will do that.

"The lack of recognition that paper bags are just as disposable is the shortcoming," Golub said.

Under the current legislative setup, with Republicans in charge of the state Senate, Cuomo's bill is as doomed to failure as the Buffalo Bills. But with Democrats expected to surf a blue wave that will give them control of the body, the plastic bag ban could face better odds.

Well, I won't cry if plastic bags disappear.

In all honesty, I'm tired of being the guy who continually tells store clerks that, no, I really don't need a bag, please, not for that one little item. They almost never ask ahead of time. Often I'm late to the draw and they grudgingly pull whatever I'm buying out of the bag to honor my request.

On Saturday, when I went to Stewart's to buy butter, just butter, I was especially slow. And so my purchase was in the bag and on the counter before I said a word, and I never protested. The bag, the butter and I went home, the butter headed for the fridge, the bag headed for a kitchen cupboard where it is scrunched up with dozens of its kind.

It won't stay there long. Someday soon, I'll carry the bag into the yard and use it to pick up one of the special somethings that my dog scatters about. The bag and the special something will get tossed in the garbage.

Eventually, the bag and its unlovely cargo will arrive at a landfill, where the plastic will endure for hundreds and hundreds of years, long past when the dog and I have ceased to exist in this temporal world.